Avec Marie

Our Lady's Statue Just Outside my Room

Dear Friends and Family,

Happy Valentine's Day! Have been thinking about, and praying for, those of you in Texas putting on the men's Encounter with Jesus retreat this weekend. Hope it was full of blessings.

The above statue sits right outside my door at the seminary here in France and is very nice to see each time I come and go. The Virgin Mary has been taking care of me in so many different ways, and this statue has been just one sign of that. But since every week I could write about Our Lady, and that might get boring for you all, I'll turn to something else...

This past week was a quieter one, with lots of time for studies. So perhaps this is a good Sunday for me to give you a bit of an overview of some of my activities and travels, rather than telling you about one particular event.

Studies of course are ongoing for canon law. For example in the next three weeks I have two papers due and three exams. In addition I've begun the preparatory courses for the civil law degree. In addition to learning civil law those courses should push me to further develop analytical and rhetorical skills. Given all this going on in the U.S. today, and given the very real threats to our ability to live out our Faith, the courses could be particularly interesting and useful. Language studies these past two weeks have been mostly French, though with some Latin mixed in. Though that will change in two days...

...when I head back to Rome and return to Italian. If my train and plane schedule allows I'm hoping to visit the Rue du Bac in Paris (the chapel of the apparitions of Our Lady to St. Catherine Labouré for the miraculous medal), and to ask for Her intercession (and will carry you all in my heart there). I will then be back in Rome for a few days for some meetings and further study. Then next weekend I will be in Florence at a conference of Roberto De Mattei. He's essentially invited about 100 Catholic leaders in Italy to gather for a networking conference in order to support each other in the face of some current challenges. He asked another priest and myself to come offer Mass each day and assist with Confessions during the breaks. Could be an interesting conference, and interesting people to meet--and as a bonus will be helpful for learning Italian!

From there I will likely stay in Florence an additional few days with the family that hosted me last summer, for continued Italian immersion and to simply see how they are doing. Then, I will be heading out to... England. Now you may be wondering, "Is Fr. Moses simply trying to visit as many countries as possible on this trip?" Nope. I had planned to be in Italy this whole trip however the trip to France seemed to be what the Lord (though my spiritual director and also at Cardinal Burke's prompting), was asking for these past two weeks. The trip to England is also at Cardinal Burke's prompting. Among other things I will be spending two weeks at a Carmelite monastery, full of young sisters, in need of the Latin Mass each day. It is a community that Cardinal Burke knows well and highly encouraged me to spend some time at, and to help them if I could. Though it won't be a great situation for studying Italian it should be a very nice situation for prayer, and also for canon law study--which will come at a good time given the exams and papers that are coming due.

Jumping over some other events of the next few months I will mention one possibility for part of this summer that I am particularly excited about. I may be able to make the full 30-day Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola at a retreat center in Europe. This has always interested me--both for my own spiritual formation but also for the sake of learning from the Exercises in view of future retreat ministry. This retreat is probably the most famous and most used retreat in the history of the Church for discernment, hence this summer would be a great time for me to make it.

Hopefully that gives you a bit of an overview of my travels. The main thing happening each day though is not those things, but is rather the daily conversation with Jesus and Mary. But if I filled every blog with that it might get a bit tiresome for you!

It is currently 3:30PM on a quiet, cool, Sunday afternoon. I am about to head out for a jog, and then was invited to lead the Solemn Vespers for the seminarians this evening. Have never lead that particular version before so it will be nice to learn it and above all nice to pray it.

I miss you all here but pray for you each day. You all must be praying for me because the Lord has been taking good care of me!

In Corde Mariae,
Fr. Moses of Jesus Pillari

PS. Just returned from vespers. Made a few mistakes but on the whole came through unscathed!